Red Cotton Night-cap Country, or Turf and Towers

(1873). This may be termed a pathological poem, a study of suicidal mania and religious insanity in a young man of di ipated habits whose “mind” was scarcely worthy of the poet’s analysis. The title given to the work was so bestowed in consequence of Mr. Browning having met Mi Thackeray in a part of Normandy which she jokingly christened “White Cotton Night-cap Country,” on account of its sleepine . Mr. Browning having heard the tragedy which his story tells, said “Red Cotton Night-cap Country” would be the more appropriate term. The alternative title, “Turf and Towers,” is much more likely to have been suggested by the scenery of the place than by the more fanciful reasons which have sometimes been imagined for it. The scene of the story is in the department of Calvados, close to the city of Caen. The whole country is very interesting, from its historical a ociations and architectural remains, and the scenery is exceedingly beautiful. M. de Caumont, the distinguished archæologist of Caen, enumerates nearly seventy specimens of the Norman architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries existing in it. Battlemented walls furnished with towers, picturesque chateaux, old churches and tall spires in a landscape of luxuriant pastures and grey and purple hills, justified the title “Turf and Towers,” even apart from the particular circumstances connected with the story. Mr. Browning visited St. Aubin’s in 1872, and was interested in the singular history of the family which owned Clairvaux, a restored priory in the locality. Léonce Miranda, the son and heir of a wealthy Paris jeweller, led a di ipated life in his times of leisure, but industriously pursued his calling in strictly busine hours. After devoting his attentions to a number of light-o’-loves, he one day fell in love with an adventure , one Clara Mulhausen, who succeeded in securing him in her toils. As she was already married, the connection was of a nature to be carried on in seclusion, and the jeweller accordingly left a manager in charge of his busine , retiring with the woman to Clairvaux, where his father had already purchased property. For five years the couple lived together in what was considered to be happine . Then Miranda was suddenly called to Paris to account to his mother for his extravagance: he had spent large sums in building operations, having amongst other things erected a Belvedere (a sort of tower above the roof built for viewing the scenery). He so felt the reproaches of his mother that he attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Seine. He was saved, however, and having been restored by Clara’s nursing, was convalescent when he was again urgently summoned to his mother, only to find her dead. He was told that his conduct was responsible for his mother’s death; and his relatives, carele of the consequences to a mind so unhinged as Miranda’s, spared him none of their upbraidings. All this had the anticipated effect: he gave up the bulk of his property to his relatives, reserving only enough for his decent support and that of Clara. When the day arrived for the legal arrangements to be completed, he was found in a room reading and burning in the fire a number of letters. He had afterwards, so it was discovered, placed a number of the papers in a bag and held it in the fire till his hands were destroyed, at the same time crying, “Burn, burn and purify my past.” If anything more than what had already happened were nece ary to prove the man’s insanity, the fact that he inflicted this terrible injury upon himself was sufficient evidence on the point. He declared that he was working out his salvation, and had to be dragged from the room protesting that the sacrifice was incomplete: “I must have more hands to burn!” He lay in a fevered condition for three months, raving against the temptre . When he was sufficiently restored to health he took her back to his heart, saying however, “Her sex is changed: this is my brother—he will tend me now.” He disposed of the jeweller’s shop to his relatives, and went back to Clairvaux with the woman. At this point Mr. Browning brings the would-be suicide under the influence of religion; the man devoted his substance liberally to the poor, and made many gifts to the Church: it was “ask and have” with this kind Miranda, who was striving to save his soul by acts of charity. It happened that there was a pilgrimage chapel of La Déliverande near Clairvaux, called in the poem, rather oddly, “The Ravi ante.” The Norman sailors and peasants have resorted to this place of devotion for the last eight hundred years. Murray says: “It is a small Norman edifice. The statue of the Virgin, which now commands the veneration of the faithful, was resuscitated in the reign of Henry I. from the ruins of a previous chapel destroyed by the North men, through the agency of a lamb constantly grubbing up the earth over the spot where it lay. Such is the tenor of the legend. The reputation of the image for performing miracles, especially in behalf of sailors, has been maintained from that time to the present.” Of course Miranda paid many visits to Our Lady’s shrine; many prayers had been heard and answered there,—why should not La Déliverande help him? One splendid day in spring he mounts the stairs of his view-tower, and, as the poet imagines, addre es the Virgin in exalted phrase. He declares that he burned his hands off because she had prompted, “Purchase now by pain pleasure hereafter in the world to come.” He had lightened his purse even if his soul still retained forbidden treasure, and “Where is the reward?” He reproaches Our Lady that she has done nothing to help him. She is Queen of Angels: will she suspend for him the law of gravity if he casts himself from the tower? He tells her it will restore religion to France, to the world, if this miracle is worked. He sees Our Lady smile a ent: he will trust himself. He springs from the balustrade, and lies stone dead on the turf the next moment. “Mad!” exclaimed a gardener who saw him fall. “No! Sane,” says Mr. Browning. “He put faith to the proof. He believed in Christianity for its miracles, not for its moral influence on the heart of man; better test such faith at once—‘kill or cure.’” By a later will Miranda had bequeathed all his property to the Church, reserving sufficient for the support of Clara. Of course the relatives interfered, with the idea of securing the property for themselves. This led to a trial, which was decided in the lady’s favour, and she was châtelaine of Clairvaux where Browning saw her in 1872. The real names of the persons and places are not given in the poem, and there is no good purpose to be served by giving a key to them. Notes. —[The pages are those of the first edition of the Poem.] Page 2, “ Un-Murrayed ”: unfrequented by tourists who carry Murray’s or Bædeker’s guide-books. p. 4, Saint-Rambert == St. Aubin, a pretty bathing-place in Calvados, Normandy; Joyous-Gard : the estate given by King Arthur to Sir Launce lot of the Lake for defending Guinevere. p. 6, Rome’s Corso : the principal modern thoroughfare of Rome is the Corso. p. 18, Guarnerius , Andreas, and his son Giuseppe, early Italian violin makers; Str a duar i us , Antonio: a famous violin maker of Cremona (1649-1737). p. 19, Corelli (1653-1713): a celebrated violin player and composer; cushat-dove == the ring-dove or wood-pigeon; giga == gigg : a jig, a dance; Saraband : a grave Spanish dance in triple time. p. 23, “ Quod semel, semper, et ubique ”: what was once, and is always and everywhere. This would seem to be intended for the celebrated rule of St. Vincent of Lerins as to the Catholic Faith—“Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ad omnibus creditum est. Hoc est etenim vere proprieque catholicum” ( Comm. , c. 3)—that is to say, the Catholic doctrine is that which has been believed in all places, at all times, and by all the faithful. p. 24, Rahab-thread : see Joshua ii. 18. p. 25, Octroi : a tax levied at the gate of Continental cities on food, etc., brought within the walls. p. 29, The Conqueror’s country : Normandy, the native country of William the Conqueror. p. 30, Lourdes and La Salette : celebrated places of pilgrimage in France. p. 37, Abaris : a priest of Apollo; he rode through the air, invisible, on a golden arrow, curing diseases and giving oracles. p. 42, Madrilene , of Madrid. p. 73, Father Secchi : the great Jesuit astronomer of Rome. p. 83, Acromia : in anatomy, the outer extremities of the shoulder-blades. p. 84, Sganarelle : the hero of Molière’s comedy Le Mariage Forcé . A man aged about fifty-four proposes to marry a fashionable young woman, but he has certain scruples which, however, are allayed by the cudgel of the lady’s brother. p. 87, Caen : an ancient and celebrated city of Normandy. p. 88, “ Inveni ovem [me am] quæ perierat ”: “I have found my sheep which was lost” (St. Luke xv. 6). p. 108, Favonian breeze : the west wind, favourable to vegetation; Auster : an unhealthy wind, the same as the Sirocco. p. 140, L’Ingegno , Andrea Luigi. p. 141, Boileau : the great French poet, born at Paris 1636; Louis Quatorze : Louis XIV., king of France; Pierre Corneille : the great dramatic poet (1606-84), born at Rouen. p. 177, “ Religio Medici ”: a doctor’s religion; the title of the celebrated book of Sir Thomas Browne, a devout Christian writer; the new religion of the hyper-scientific school of doctors is mere materialism. p. 193, Rouher , Eugene: French politician (1814-84); Œcumenical A emblage at Rome : a general or universal council of the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. p. 202, fons et origo : the fount and origin. p. 203, “ On Christmas morn—three Ma es ”: the first is the midnight ma , the second at break of day, the third is the Christmas morning ma . p. 204, Cistercian monk : of an Order established at Citeaux, in France, by Robert, abbot of Moleme. The Order is very severe; but its rule is similar to that of the Benedictines; Capucin : a monk of the Order of St. Francis; Benedict : St. Benedict, “the most illustrious name in the history of Western monasticism”: he was born at Nursia, in Umbria, about the year 480; Scholastic a : St. Scholastic a was the sister of St. Benedict: she established a convent near Monte Ca ino. p. 210, Star of Sea : Stella Maris, one of the titles of Our Lady, because mare means “the sea” in Latin. p. 229, Com mines (more correctly Comines): Philippe de Comines (1445-1509), called “the father of modern history.” Hallam says that his Memoirs “almost make an epoch in modern history.” p. 234, “ Queen of Angels ”: one of the titles of the Ble ed Virgin Mary. p. 235, “ Legations to the Pope ”: amba adors or envoys to the Pope of Rome. p. 238, Alacoque : the Ven. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who founded the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in France; “ Renan burns his book ”: Ernest Renan, born 1823, the famous French philologist and historian, author of the Rationalistic Life of Jesus , which of course he did not burn! “ Veuillot burns Renan ”: Louis Veuillot (1813-83), a celebrated French writer of the Ultramontane school, who would gladly have suppre ed Renan if he had had the opportunity; “ The Universe ”: the famous Catholic journal edited by Veuillot. p. 245, Lignum vitæ : Guaiacum wood, used in rheumatism, etc.; grains of Paradise : an aromatic drug with carminative properties, like ginger. p. 268, “ Painted Peacock ”: the butterfly whose scientific name is the Vane a io ; Brimstone-wing : the species of butterfly so called from its bright yellow colour. Its scientific name is the Rhodocera Rhamna .